Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator David Pocock for the constructive discussions that have gone on in the last hour or so, and we will continue those discussions and ensure that the basis of those discussions will be implemented. It is remarkable that Senator Ruston now jumps up to move Senator Pocock's amendments. If this was such an important issue and the opposition were so concerned about small business, why didn't they move these amendments themselves in the first instance? I think that is the $64 question. I think I do have an answer to that. Although Senator Ruston and her colleagues in the coalition talk the talk on small business, they never ever walk the walk. We've only had to see what has happened with the Bellarine Peninsula. What happened to small businesses in the tourism industry during the pandemic? You didn't care an iota.

You never cared one iota about those small businesses. Suddenly—